Song:Luna Park
Album:Les Plus Grandes Chansons
In North America, Yves Montand was best known as an actor. But he was a very popular singer in his adopted country of France back in the 40s before he got into films. Luna Park is one of his earliest recordings. I'm sure many don't even know that he was Italian. He was born Ivo Livi Oct. 13, 1921 Monsummano Alto, Italy which is near Florence. His father was involved in the Communist Party so the family was forced to moved to Marseilles, France in 1924. As a teen, he worked as a barber in his sister's hair salon. But he started singing and winning talent contest and named himself Yves Montand as it sounded like his mother calling him to dinner. WWII interrupted his singing career. But by 1944, he moved to Paris and started performing with Edith Piaf. He started appearing in films and recorded for Odeon Records. Luna Park was a song that he performed in clubs and then he got to sing it in his 1945 film debut Silence...Antenne. Montand became more active in films in the 50s. His breakthrough role was in Henri-Georges Cluzot's 1953 classic The Wages Of Fear. He also married French film star Simone Signoret. He finally broke through in the US in 1959 when Norman Granz had him tour and he continued to appear in films. He remained a very popular singer in France but never attained the same fame as a singer in the US. He continued to star in films and do concert tours in France until his death on Nov. 9, 1991 at age 70. This budget CD is from the Franch classical label Coppelia and contains Montand's music of the 40s. Here's Yves Montand performing Luna Park at the Olympia in Paris 1981.
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